The Enigma of Capital

and the Crises of Capitalism

David Harvey

Authoritative, sweeping account of the financial crisis that places it in the broadest possible context

David Harvey is a legendary scholar of cities and capitalist development, and the topic is perfect for him

Provides an impassioned left critique of the crisis and offers solutions that challenge the notion that the system can be made to work without a radical restructuring

The Enigma of Capital

and the Crises of Capitalism

Second Edition

David Harvey

Description

For over forty years, David Harvey has been one of the world's most trenchant and critical analysts of capitalist development. In The Enigma of Capital, he delivers an impassioned account of how unchecked neoliberalism produced the system-wide crisis that now engulfs the world.

Beginning in the 1970s, profitability pressures led the capitalist class in advanced countries to shift away from investment in industrial production at home toward the higher returns that financial products promised. Accompanying this was a shift towards privatization, an absolute decline in the bargaining power of labor, and the dispersion of production throughout the developing world. The decades-long and ongoing decline in wages that accompanied this turn produced a dilemma: how can goods--especially real estate--sell at the same rate as before if workers are making less in relative terms? The answer was a huge expansion of credit that fueled the explosive growth of both the financial industry and the real estate market. When one key market collapsed--real estate--the other one did as well, and social devastation resulted.

Harvey places today's crisis in the broadest possible context: the historical development of global capitalism itself from the industrial era onward. Moving deftly between this history and the unfolding of the current crisis, he concentrates on how such crises both devastate workers and create openings for challenging the system's legitimacy. The battle now will be between the still-powerful forces that want to reconstitute the system of yesterday and those that want to replace it with one that prizes social justice and economic equality. The new afterword focuses on the continuing impact of the crisis and the response to it in 2010.

The Enigma of Capital

and the Crises of Capitalism

Second Edition

David Harvey

Table of Contents

Preamble vi

1 The Disruption2 Capital Assembled 3 Capital Goes to Work 4 Capital Goes to Market 5 Capital Evolves 6 The Geography of It All 7 Creative Destruction on the Land 8 What is to be Done? And Who is Going to Do It? Afterword

Appendices Sources and Further Reading Index

The Enigma of Capital

and the Crises of Capitalism

Second Edition

David Harvey

Author Information

David Harvey is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is among the top twenty most cited authors in the humanities and is the world's most cited academic geographer. His books include The Limits to Capital, Social Justice and the City, and The Condition of Postmodernity, among many others.

The Enigma of Capital

and the Crises of Capitalism

Second Edition

David Harvey

Reviews and Awards

One of Huffington Posts's Best Social and Political Awareness Books of 2010

Winner of the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize for 2010

The Enigma of Capital

and the Crises of Capitalism

Second Edition

David Harvey

From Our Blog

By David Harvey 'Nihilistic and feral teenagers' the Daily Mail called them: the crazy youths from all walks of life who raced around the streets mindlessly and desperately hurling bricks, stones and bottles at the cops while looting here and setting bonfires there, leading the authorities on a merry chase of catch-as-catch-can as they tweeted their way from one strategic target to another.